Beef and Guinness Stew

Here is my take on a what has become a bit of a classic. This will easily serve six. The real beauty of this recipe is that most liquor outlets only sell Guinness in four packs so I get to drink the other three cans while I'm cooking. That's nice. You will need a large casserole like the one in the picture below so that you can brown meat and cook the casserole on the oven top in the same dish. You can get this particular Le Creuset for around $420 or do what we did and get it free with your Fly Buys! Bonus!





Guinness Stew
1.5 kg of beef shin cut in to 2-3 cm chunks (you will need to buy around 1.8kg of shin on the bone to get 1.5kg of meat)
1 440ml can of Guinness
500ml of beef stock
2 large onions, roughly chopped
2 large carrots, sliced into large pieces
2 parsnips, cut in half down the middle
2 sticks of celery, sliced quite finely
5 medium potatoes, quartered
3 tablespoons of tomato paste
A can of chopped tomatoes
6 cloves of garlic, skin on
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon each of dried thyme, oregano and parsley
Oil
Butter
Flour

Marinate your beef in the Guinness overnight in the fridge.
Take the beef from the Guinness and pat the beef dry with paper towels, save the Guinness.
Put a little oil in your casserole, brown the beef well in three separate lots and put aside.
Add the celery, garlic, onion and carrots to the pot and cook for 2-3 minutes while stirring then put the lid on and cook a further 5-6 minutes till the onion is starting to soften.
Add the meat, herbs, Guinness, beef stock, tomato paste, tinned tomatoes, salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper (by plenty I mean at least a tablespoon). Mix everything together and cook over a low heat so that the stew is just simmering for 1 1/2 hours stirring about every 30 minutes.
Add the potatoes and parsnips after 1 1/2 hours and cook for a further 30 mins making sure that the potatoes are immersed in the liquid from the stew. Taste at this stage and add further salt and pepper if necessary.
After the potatoes have been in for 30 minutes remove the lid and cook for a further 30 minutes making sure that you do not over cook the potatoes as they will disintegrate (this is bad).
Thicken the stew by making a paste (beurre manier) using a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of flour. When the flour and butter are well mixed add half a cup of the stew liquid and whisk until combined. Add this mixture to the stew, mix in well and cook for 5-10 minutes until the stew is thick. Season again if necessary remembering that the potatoes will tend to thin out your flavours and may make the stew a little bland if not seasoned well. If you do find that the flavour isn't strong enough for you just reduce the stock volume to 250ml and cook the potatoes and parsnips separately next time, personally I like them in there.
Serve with something green.